Add to My Artists Remove from My Artists

Isaac Bashevis Singer and His ArtistsExhibition, Folklore, History, Literature, Painting/Illustration, Storytelling

Winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize for Literature, Isaac Bashevis Singer’s (1902-1991) prolific legacy of books and stories are a pillar in the canon of Yiddish and Jewish literature. Of his many books and stories, more than thirty have been illustrated. The visual interpretations given to his work by various artists reveal a fascinating variety of approaches, matching the authors own varying themes and moods. This unique exhibit features over 80 paintings, drawings and photographs created by 17 different artists for Singer’s books and stories. Exhibited artists include Larry Rivers, Maurice Sendak, Raphael Soyer, Roman Vishniac, William Pene Du Bois, Ira Moskowitz, Eric Carle, Leonard Everrett Fisher, Antonio Frasconi, Nonny Hogrogian, Yuri Shulevitz, Irene Lieblich and Margot Zemach. With a unique sense of humanity, humor, and clarity, Singer’s early writing evoked the vanished world of Polish Jews prior to and during the First World War. Beginning with his 1961 short story collection “The Spinoza of Market Street” and continuing in his later works, the writer depicted a post-Holocaust world rife with chaos and paranoia. Based on his sharp observations and genuine love of pious, superstitious, earthy, heroic, and tragic figures, his works continue to live in our collective memories. Singer's fictional characters blur the lines between folk tales, legends and supernatural powers, and the harsh realities of fear, anxiety, and despair of surviving.

Performer Schedule